Support Colombian conscientious objectors

The National Assembly of Conscientious Objectors - ANOOC is a network of organizations and groups of different regions of Colombia who are promoting conscientious objection against all - legal and illegal - armed groups, with a non-violent approach.

FRIENDS WORLD COMMITTEE FOR CONSULTATION (QUAKERS) www.quno.org

Rachel Brett

Introduction

The issue of conscientious objection to military service has been addressed within the United Nations (UN) human rights system in a number of ways, but most notably through resolutions of the (former) UN Commission on Human Rights, through the Special Procedures of the (now) Human Rights Council,[1] and through the Human Rights Committee[2] in both individual cases and when considering State report

Departing at 21:00 from Bogota on the bus fleet Rápico Ochoa bound for Medellin, the bus was held up at 12.45 a.m. by the National Armed Forces of the Municipality of Guaduas, Cundianamarca. We were held up on the motorway till 1.55 a.m. and later the army allowed us to rest at the Guadua Infantry Battalion, by which time it was 2:11 am, the very time one starts to imagine what may happen. There were 13 youths in the hangar where everyone was amusing themselves on their mobiles or joking around. I conveyed my position as Conscientious Objector to lieutenant Gómez.

Since the 1980s, 15 May is celebrated as International
Conscientious Objectors' Day. Originally coordinated by the
International Conscientious Objectors' Meeting (ICOM), War Resisters'
International stepped in to coordinate and promote International
Conscientious Objectors' Day since ICOM ceased to meet ever since ICOM
1995 in Chad.

Dear friends and war resisters,

You receive a fraternal greeting from the National Assembly of
Conscientious Objectors - ANOOC, a network of organizations and groups
from different regions of Colombia who are promoting conscientious
objection against all - legal and illegal - armed groups, with a
nonviolent approach.

Colombia has one of the oldest internal armed conflicts in Latin America. This conflict involves on one hand the various armed actors such as the guerrilla groups ELN (National Liberation Army) and FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), the paramilitaries, and the State's armed forces and other security corps. On the other hand, we find unarmed power actors implicated in the war, such as the political and economic elite, transnational companies, and the mass media as it is controlled by the national economic empire, which openly supports the military and aggressive stance of the current government.

In the run-up to a nationwide conscientious objectors' conference from 18-20 July 2006, CO groups in Colombia are confronting the situation in their country more openly. On 31 May, Red Juvenil de Medellín launched a one-year campaign "for the visibility of conscientious objection in Colombia" in front of the IV brigade.